One Foot in Front of the Other
by artyak
Summary: Being a young adult is hard. Figuring out who you are, what you want to do, making friends, the choices, the relationships... it can make you say and do things you regret. Enter Blaine and Kurt. Can they mend their pasts, or even better, each others?
1. Burberry and Blazers

**Authors Note: **

**My first fanfiction ever! Hope you like the start of it, I am not sure whether to continue it or not. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the show Glee or any of it's characters, story-lines, or actors. This story is for fan purposes only.**

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><p>Kurt slammed the front door to his house and threw his Burberry messenger bag on the living room couch. He stood in the middle of the still room, and then ran his<p>

fingers through his hair to loosen the gel a little. Kurt may go to McKinley now, but he still couldn't leave behind that little piece of Dalton.

With a heavy sigh he yelled, "DAD?" Nobody responded.

Finn was at football practice and his Dad was probably on one of his "post marriage" dates with his new wife Carol. Date. The word put a pit in his stomach. A pit that said Blaine. The two hadn't been on a date for over 3 weeks now. In fact, barely any words had been exchanged at all since the Sam mix-up.

The memory caused his mouth to run dry and he crossed over to the kitchen. It felt like only yesterday, when he and Blaine had their first real fight. A fight that really counted. The bickering over solos and sex education was nothing, absolute grains of sand compared to the pain he felt almost a month ago.

As Kurt filled up a glass with water, it all flooded back to him, unable to stop.

_"HOW could YOU do this to me?" Blaine yelled as he threw down his books on the table. Kurt froze. He didn't know what was going on. His heart beat quickened waiting for Blaine to explain._

_"You know, I should've know. I should've KNOWN I didn't mean enough to you! Like you going back to McKinley wasn't hard enough. You just couldn't resist could you?"_

_Oh. God. Finn must have told him something._

Think Kurt,_ think he told himself. He froze again. _He thinks I cheated on him. With Sam. That night I asked him to help me with a surprise for Finn. He must have seen us together alone in the house. Oh god, oh god.

_Kurt knew that Blaine was near impossible to reason with when he was this angry. "Blaine, you have to listen to me..." but he was cut off. "LISTEN to you? Oh you mean like I originally listened to you? I can't even deal with this right now. Forget it. I'll see you around." And with that he was gone as quick as he came._

Kurt snapped back into reality. Blaine should have trusted Kurt. He should have known that the words "I'll never say goodbye to you." actually was the truth! Because Blaine was now a part of him, whether he liked it or not.

All their friends saw was a normal teen couple. Well, as normal as a gay couple could be in an Ohio town. But they never got to see how much they talked together in private. How much they had bonded in the short amount of time they knew each other.

Kurt walked out of the kitchen and back into the front room. Sitting his water on the table, he slumped into the couch and buried his face in his hands.

_Why is this happening..._ his thought was interrupted by the slam of the front door.

_Oh Dad must be home._ But Kurt didn't remove his head from his hands. Silence rang through the room as he sat down next to Kurt. But the weight pressing on the couch wasn't heavy enough. He peeked through his hands and saw it. The shine of dress shoes. The hem of pants that were once too long. Slowly making his way up he doesn't see his father, he sees HIM. But the blazer was off and sitting next to Kurt's bag, where it belonged. Blaine just stared at him with that lost, abandoned puppy look on his face.

_Oh god I can't resist the face and he knows it._

"Kurt." he whispered. "Please." it came out as a squeak.

Kurt just stared at Blaine in shock. By habit he started to trace a loose curl with his eyes.

_Snap out of it Kurt he doesn't trust you remember? _

"Kurt you know what I'm about to say. I know you didn't hook up with Sam I know you are true I knew it I knew it I KNEW it! Okay? I always knew! Do you understand how much a care about you? A hell of a lot! And, and, and..." Blaine was ramping up now.

Kurt eyed his glass on the table as Blaine continued.

"Please. Just please. You have to understand how I am with these kinds of things. I am not good at romance, I told you that. Warned you in fact. I knew I would screw things up somehow. I overreact because of my past and you of all people know that. You have to believe me you have to. I-" but his frantic attempt at apology was cut short as Kurt threw his water all over Blaine.

The water completely undid his hair, releasing curls everywhere. His long black eyelashes dripped and the water ran down his unmoving face and onto his dress shirt. The white one.

_Oh god bad idea it's gonna be see-through I should have thought of that. _

Without a word Kurt casually sliped off Blaine's tie and gently laid it down on his blazer. Blaine still hadn't moved an inch.

"Blaine." Kurt said, strongly. Confidently. He hesitated.

"Blaine..." he repeated, softer.

His wet eyes darted, but relaxed quickly. Kurt slowly took Blaine's hand, as if to absorb the wetness, the sorrow. He softly kissed his cheek, then gazed into his tired eyes and whispered,

"Blaine Anderson, you exaggerated, foolish worrier."

Then Kurt brushed his lips on Blaine's cheek, as tenderly as he could. Because just a touch mean a lot to him. But Blaine was never one to hold back. So, naturally he tried to kiss Kurt back , but Kurt jerked back causing a hurt and confused look to cross Blaine's face. He made a _shhh _motion with his finger. Yep, that was definitely his dad at the door.

"Quick!" he hissed, "Room, go, NOW!"

Thankfully Blaine didn't question him and he snatched his things on the way to Kurt's room.

"Kurt! We're home!" Burt stared at the incomprehensibly suave Kurt. Then at the dark spot on the carpet. Then at Kurt.

"Son, why is the carpet wet?"


	2. The Grey Shirt

**Disclaimer: I do not own the show Glee or any of it's characters, story-lines, or actors. This story is for fan purposes only.**

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><p>Kurt nonchalantly brushed a loose hair out of his face and slowly met his parent's gaze.<p>

"Well are you gonna answer me?" his father questioned.

Kurt chose his words carefully, then replied with,

"Oh, you know how clumsy I am. I just knocked my water over by accident, no big deal."

Kurt turned around and was about to run into the kitchen to get some paper towels when his dad tapped him on his shoulder. He swiveled around to see Burt holding up a gold button with the Dalton emblem stamped on it. Kurt's stomach plunged. Blaine was the only person from Dalton he really hung out with now, and his dad knew that.

"Uh... well you see... I..." Kurt searched for an explanation, but he had none.

It had been 2 months since he had left Dalton, too long to be taking his old uniform out of the back of his stuffed closet.

"Was Blaine here? I swear, Kurt, if that good for nothing flake was under my roof again I'll lose it. You have lost too much sleep over that stupid boy, there is no reason at all he should have been-"

"He's NOT stupid okay? Just drop it, he stopped by just to give me back my scarf I left at Bread Sticks a couple weeks ago. We didn't even talk, and I accidentally knocked over my glass getting to the door." Kurt lied.

Burt didn't look convinced, but with a gruff sigh he followed silent-as-always Carol into the family room and turned on the game. Kurt sighed with relief and also annoyance as he cleaned the spot up, then promptly trudged up the stairs to his room.

By this time he had forgotten the fact that Blaine was still there, and so he swung open the door and fell face forward into his bed. Several seconds passed before a figure laid right next to him. As if struck by lightning, startled Kurt flew out of his bed and onto the floor with a thud.

"What the hell Blaine?" he muttered softly, rubbing his arm tenderly.

He looked up to see Blaine now sitting criss-cross applesauce, fro-hair completely unleashed.

"I hope you don't mind, but I kind of borrowed one of your shirts. I know you don't like this one very much because I've never seen you wear it, so I assume it's okay? Mine was a little... wet."

Kurt glanced over to see him wearing his plain old grey tshirt, but of course it was just small enough on him. He wondered he did that on purpose. But all he said was,

"Sure." and leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, still on the floor.

Like routine Blaine got up to sit next to him, but this time Kurt didn't acknowledge him. A little hurt, Blaine said,

"Wait, are you still mad at me? Because just like, ten minutes ago you seemed like you forgave me!"

Rolling his head against the wall to face him, Kurt tersely said,

"First off, speak any louder and I'll kick you out before my dad does. Second, you're acting as if I don't have a reason to be mad at you. I meant what I said in the living room, but I can't just forget what happened."

Silence rang through his bedroom.

"I'm a sensitive person Blaine, always have been, always will be."

Blaine suddenly buried his face in his hands and didn't move them for several minutes. He couldn't, because those words brought the onslaught of a memory he didn't want to re-experience. But he did.


	3. Partially Noted

**Disclaimer: I do not own the show Glee or any of it's characters, story-lines, or actors. This story is for fan purposes only.**

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><p><em>One foot in front of the other, you'll be fine, you always are.<em>

But he couldn't help but think this time was different. It was slowly picking away at him, at his heart. He kept walking, concentrating on the ashen pavement. As he turned around to see if they were following, his sneaker slipped into a crack, sending him crashing to the ground. Pain jabbed into his knees and wrists, his face dusted with dirt. He knew he had to get up and either run, attack or defend, but the three kids were now standing in front of him menacingly.

_They know I'm smaller than them. They know I'll never stand a chance, it's 3 to 1! _

A kid with spiked dirty blond hair and vans stepped forward and stooped down to his level, staring at him condescending.

"Look who's too gay to even walk straight." A smug smile crept onto the boys face; he knew who was superior.

"Please, just please leave me alone. I don't ever bother you guys! I haven't done anything!" he pleaded for their mercy.

_God I sound so pathetic, but what else can I do?_

"Everything you do is wrong Blaine, don't you get it?" the blond kid jeered.

Blaine couldn't move or swallow.

"Yeah, even your name is stupid." said another boy with dirty hands to his right.

But the taunts didn't stop as the muscular bully jutted in.

"And you look like a freakin' bush with that retarded afro you have living on your head. Like what the hell _is _it?"

It was too much, he couldn't handle it. Before he realized what was happening, a tear dropped to the ground; splashing away what little confidence he had left.

"Aw come on you wimp, you're in freaking 8th grade. Man up a little. Oh wait, I forgot! You CAN'T!" and with that the blond kid kicked him with all his might, causing the tears to flood freely.

The three of them laughed and promptly walked away casually one by one, as if nothing had happened. Silence. He crawled to the side where no one would see him and cried and didn't stop. He cried because he hurt all over, inside and out. He cried because he hated them. He cried because he didn't fight back. He cried because he hated himself. He thought that surely he would run out of things to cry about, but that never seemed to happen.

Suddenly, he heard his name being called.

"Blaine? Are you there? Class started 40 minutes ago, where are you?"

He curled up, hid his head in his knees and didn't answer.

"Oh Blaine! What happened?" the small girl ran to him and knelt beside him.

He lifted his head, unmasking his red, blotchy, tear stained face. Another sob broke out and he shook all over.

"Aaa...ambbberr. Wwhy are yyyou here?" he managed to choke out between sobs.

But all she did was brush his thick hair back, which lifted his head and then embraced him longer and harder than she ever had in her whole life. No more words were exchanged. She simply grabbed his hand and led him slowly to the girls bathroom. No one was there, everyone was in class for another hour. The two of them slumped side by side on the back wall, still saying nothing.

"Here we are, once again

You're torn into pieces

Can't deny it, can't pretend

I thought you were okay

Broken up, deep inside

But I got to see those tears you cry

Behind those hazel eyes."

Amber sang softly to the silence. She rolled her head to face Blaine, who gave her a watery grimace.

"I'm sorry you had to see me like this. But, thank you. I don't know how I would have gotten off the ground." Blaine whispered and squeezed her hand.

Amber slowly got up and got some paper towels. Blaine watched as she wet them and then proceeded to gently wipe his face and arms clean of dirt and blood.

"I am going to clean you up and you are going to walk into class as if nothing happened. You will tell the teacher that you fell ill at lunch and stayed in the bathroom until you felt better. I went to check to see if you were okay. Got it?"

Blaine nodded weakly and thought grimly, _As if nothing happened. As if I forgot. Got it. That should be easy right?_

When he finally lifted his head back to reality, he realized Kurt was gone. Glancing around briefly, he finally figured that Kurt was in the bathroom. By the sounds of it he was in the middle of his very complicated skin care routine, which no one in their right mind would ever interrupt.

A small smile crept onto Blaine's face, but it quickly vanished when he remembered what he did, and how Kurt felt about him now. Swiftly he grabbed his things and hesitated on his way to the bedroom door. Then, as if he didn't want to think about what he was doing, Blaine thrust his hands into his pocket and pulled out a rumpled note; the note he was going to leave for Kurt in case he wasn't home.

Tearing off the bottom half and returning it to his pocket, he left the top part on Kurt's bed and silently escaped to the upstairs balcony and down the stairs, into the dimming night.

I'm sorry.

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><p>I love you.<p> 


End file.
